newly-developing class of liberal elite. He targeted traditionalists for continuing to engage in arranged marriages through middlemen. In the play, a poor young man became infatuated with a beautiful woman, but according to Muslim tradition, grooms were unable to see the faces of their brides until after the marriage contract was finalized. The family of the beautiful woman used the stipulation to their advantage, when they secretly replaced the young poet's beloved with her highly unattractive older sister. The young man was eventually reunited with his darling through misdeeds of his own. Throughout the play, Şinasi also took advantage of humor to condemn the frequent arrogance and pretentiousness of the "self-styled intellectuals". The play is presumed to have been commissioned to be performed at the Dolmabahçe Palace's court theater, but a performance may or may not have taken place at that location. It is believed that the first English translation of the play was published in 1981. The Şinasi Sahnesi theatre in Ankara, Turkey was named in honour of Şinasi. Later life and death Şinasi returned to Istanbul in 1869, where "he lived as a recluse in some financial need." He opened a printing house and began to have his works printed and published. Soon afterwards, on 13 September 1871, he died of a brain tumor at the age of 45. Works Tercüme-i Manzume (1859, translation of poems from the French of La Fontaine, Lamartine, Gilbert, and Racine) Şair Evlenmesi (1859, the first Ottoman play, "The Wedding of a Poet") Durub-i Emsal-i Osmaniye (1863, the first book of Turkish proverbs) Müntahabat-ı Eş'ar'' (1863, collection of poems) References Further reading External links Entry in Encyclopædia Britannica Biographie Literaturca Verlag Biography Culture and Tourism Ministry of Turkey 1826 births 1871 deaths Writers from Istanbul Members of the Société Asiatique 19th-century poets from the Ottoman Empire Dramatists and playwrights from the Ottoman Empire 19th-century journalists from the Ottoman Empire Turkish democracy activists Turkish newspaper editors Male journalists Male dramatists and playwrights 19th-century male writers 19th-century dramatists and playwrights